Friday, October 21, 2011

Film: 'American Teacher'

By Sherry Posnick-Goodwin

Films about teachers often tend to be stereotypical in nature. “Waiting for Superman” blamed “bad teachers” for being complacent and ineffective. Other movies — “Freedom Writers,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Dangerous Minds” — portray teachers as self-sacrificing saints eager to take a vow of poverty. “American Teacher” is more realistic. The film shows that the majority of teachers are smart, resourceful, hardworking, and doing the best they can in challenging circumstances. Instead of playing the blame game, the film makes a strong case that our teachers — who are responsible for educating America’s future generations — deserve to be valued, supported, and paid what they are worth.

The documentary is based on the book “Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers” (New Press 2005) authored by journalist and teacher Daniel Moulthrop, writer Dave Eggers, and Ninive Calegari, a former teacher and co-founder of 826 National, a student writing center.

Trigger Laws • Does Signing a Petition Give Parents a Voice?

Illustration: Michael Duffy

By David Bacon

Parent trigger laws, according to their proponents, give parents power. Gregory McGinity, managing director of policy for the Broad Education Foundation, calls them “a way for parents’ voices to be heard.”

Sounds good. But is the parent trigger concept a way to put parents in charge of their kids’ education, or is it part of a political agenda that will rob parents of even more control?

The first parent trigger law was passed in California last year. It says that if the parents of 51 percent of a public school’s students sign a petition (the “trigger”), that petition will result in one of four options: firing the principal, bringing in an entirely new staff, closing the school, or handing over the school to a charter school operator. Rather than triggering a broader process, the specific option—for example, the specific charter school company—is part of the petition.

Several very conservative players in national education reform, in addition to Broad, have made parent trigger proposals a key part of their agenda. Many teachers fear the expansion of a privatized education system, and view parent trigger laws as a means for rushing the

Occupy LAUSD: WHAT DOES ‘THE MAN’ HAVE TO DO WITH L.A.’S EDUCATIONAL WOES

October 21, 2011 2:20 PM - Since Tuesday, Santee teacher Jose Lara has been sitting--no standing--at the corner of 4th and Beaudry at LAUSD Headquarters. Occupy Wall Street has beget Occupy L.A. has beget Occupy LAUSD. The movement states "This is a call out to the 99% in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It is time we Reclaim Our Schools from the 1% wealthy."

But what does "the man" have to do with huge class sizes, dirty classrooms, empty libraries, fallow gardens and laid off teachers? Haven't the schools been the victim of state budget cuts? According to Lara and education activist Robert Skeels the beleaguered

Anna Almendrala | The Huffington Post | http://huff.to/o0hUF5 10/21/11 07:19 PM ET - Even though contract negotiations between the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) haven't even been scheduled yet, Superintendent John Deasy's supporters are gearing up for a long fight. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education sent out

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess |http://bit.ly/oj4qUL Posted on 10/20/11 • After keeping child education advocates and his own staff in suspense for months, Gov. Jerry Brown approved the state’s application to the federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge on Wednesday – but not before shaping it in a way that will either turn off or intrigue federal officials and competition

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess | http://bit.ly/osI5KV Posted on 10/21/11 • With monster 49ers tackle Bill “Bubba” Paris heading a soccer ball to Brandi Chastain (her idea) and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson leading elementary school students in San Jose on a lap around the field while still in a suit, Torlakson on Thursday kicked off Team California for Healthy Kids,

Themes in the News for the week of Oct. 17-21, 2011 by UCLA IDEA | http://bit.ly/oB4m6b 10-21-2011 - Some California schools have very fine facilities and learning resources. Consider the high schools with 12 students in a class; experienced teachers with Ph.D.s teaching advanced placement and honors classes; fully stocked libraries; cutting-edge technology in science laboratories; access to

Can Teachers Be Friends With Students?

Can we be friends with our students? Where do we create barriers? How about social-media wise? I'm interested to hear about your experience, lessons learned, regrets, what you would offer as advice for new teachers.

It's an important question with two key components. One relates to the question of how teachers and students view their relationships with each other on a

Oct 20, 2011 - A group of homeowners who reside within blocks of Walgrove Avenue Elementary School in Mar Vista is asking the Los Angeles Unified School District to reconsider its land lease proposal to offer space at the school to a charter organization.

Citing long-standing and rapidly worsening conditions with traffic, overburdened infrastructure, noise and a lack of attention to the elementary school, the homeowners and parents say these problems have infringed upon their lives since Ocean Charter School began sharing campus space with Walgrove five years ago, and the potential of a new charter could have devastating consequences on the neighborhood.

LAUSD has released a request for proposal (RFP) that will offer a 500-seat school on a 2-acre parcel of land at Walgrove to a charter

Meeting Notice:Screening Committee of the State Board of Education

The purpose of this meeting is to review applications for the 2012-2013 Student Board Member position, and select twelve semi-finalists to be interviewed in conjunction with the 2011 Student Advisory Board on Education (SABE) Conference.

Agenda

Call to order, Chair

Welcome and Introductions, Chair

Review and Discuss applications

Selection of twelve semi-finalists

Adjournment

ALL TIMES ARE APPROXIMATE AND ARE PROVIDED FOR CONVENIENCE ONLYTHE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY

Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in a meeting or function of the California State Board of Education (SBE), may request assistance by contacting the SBE Office, 1430 N Street, Room 5111, Sacramento, CA, 95814; telephone, 916-319-0705; fax, 916-319-0175.

Education

thenation.com - School board elections are supposed to be quintessential America contests. Moms and Main Street small business owners and retired teachers campaign by knocking on doors, writing letters to the edit...

garyrubinstein.teachforus.org - New York City’s Department of Education recently released their ‘progress reports’ for all the middle and elementary schools for the 2010-2011 school year. For each school they have a complicated f...

washingtonpost.com - This was written by Paul Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University in South Carolina. A version of this was published on Daily Kos.By Paul Thomas One aspect of the education ...

huffingtonpost.com - Last week, Dr. Diane Ravitch launched a broadside against Parent Trigger and the parent empowerment movement, calling it a "stealth assault" and a "deceptive scheme" to undermine public education. ...

salon.com - Emily knew it would be a tough race against her opponent, a deep-pocketed investment banker, but she felt confident she could run a solid campaign. She thought her experience as a social worker and...

nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com - DOE officials are working hard, trying to persuade us that they now have a different attitude towards parents. Next week is called “Parents as Partners” week, starting off with a meeting on Tuesda...

nypost.com - The city teachers union threatened to derail a new evaluation system, claiming school principals have used it to punish teachers before it even started.But Department of Education officials counter...

nypost.com - On Tuesday, the state Board of Regents approved measures to address long-obvious weaknesses in test administration and scoring procedures and to thwart the rigging of results. Yet only one of the s...

westsidespirit.com - Posted by West Side Spirit on October 19, 2011 · Leave a Comment By Dan Rosenblum Even though Noah Gotbaum came from a family of teachers, labor leaders and political figures, he never thought he’...

shankerblog.org - For the past couple of months, Steve Brill’s new book has served to step up the eternally-beneath-the-surface hypothesis that teachers’ unions are the primary obstacle to improving educational outc...

nber.org - NBER Working Paper No. 17533Issued in October 2011NBER Program(s): CH ED LS PEThis paper examines the effect of early childhood investments on college enrollment and degree completion. We u...

tbd.com - October 21, 2011 - 07:22 am Was it only two years ago that Vincent Gray, then the chairman of the D.C. Council, fumed at Michelle Rhee, then the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools, in a public meeti...

alternet.org - Rupert Murdoch's sudden interest in America's school system does not bode well. October 20, 2011 | LIKE THIS ARTICLE ? Join our mailing list: Sign up to stay up to date on the latest Educa...

chicagomag.com - Posted Oct 20, 2011 at 10:57 AM By Carol Felsenthal "If Occupy Wall Street has taught us anything, it‘s that when people decide to move and move quickly and together, that things happen, good thing...

gothamschools.org - The teachers union is threatening to curb its efforts toward new teacher evaluations if the Department of Education doesn’t remind principals again that the old evaluation system is still in place....

huffingtonpost.com - Recent headlines in our newspaper blare out the results of the Academic Performance Index and the No Child Left Behind.Interesting, and not surprising, schools in poorer district didn't fare well. ...

csmonitor.com - A Senate panel votes to drop a signature provision of No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era education reform. The new law would eliminate the mandate for 'adequate yearly progress.' In a major course ...

northjersey.com - A new proposal for an online charter school for 1,000 children statewide comes with an unusual twist: After its first year, the public school expects to have nearly $4.7 million left in the bank. T...

pressofatlanticcity.com - New Jersey has 80 charter schools. Next year, 25 more are scheduled to open, and another 42 applications are being considered by the Department of Education. But 15 years into the state's experimen...

krqe.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - This week charter schools in Albuquerque held a recrutment fair. The schools offer an alternative to a traditional public education with a focus on everything from the ...

latimes.com - For years, the Walker triplets were a fixture in their father's Pasadena barbershop.Nicole, Aubrey and Charles worked at Just In Time Hair Trends every weekend. Sweeping up the floors, answering th...

seattleducation2010.wordpress.com - As I have posted previously in Whoa! Where did that come from Washington State PTA!!? Charter Schools?! Part 1, So Much for Fair and Balanced With the Washington State PTA, A Letter to All Parents ...

gothamschools.org - Months after a deal to let a handful of city schools receive federal funding, requirements continue to keep millions of Race to the Top dollars off-limits to all but 2 percent of city schools. When...

huffingtonpost.com - “The Economy Stupid” were the words on the now famous sign in successful presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s 1992 war room. Today, that sign should be in the war rooms of all candidates—from thos...

blogs.edweek.org - Sounds like the Obama administration is less than thrilled with the accountability provisions in the ESEA-reauthorization bill passed out of the Senate education committee yesterday.No press releas...

thenotebook.org - The application deadline is just one week away. This weekend, Oct. 22-23, the High School Expo will be held at District headquarters, 440 N. Broad St. The Notebook will be at the expo, with a table...

democraticeducation.org - Posted in DemEd in Real LifePhilosophy of EducationParenting on Aug 21, 2011 - 08:07 PM For unschoolers like us, there is no back to school. There is continual learning, all of the time. We don't b...

democraticeducation.org - Posted in DemEd in Real Life on Oct 21, 2011 - 04:47 PM I'm on the outreach team for IDEC 2012, the international education gathering happening in Puerto Rico next March 24-31, and I'd like to invi...

thefightback.org - LISTEN TO THE FULL 40-MINUTE INTERVIEW WITH CANDI PETERSON HERE: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also ...

federaleducationpolicy.wordpress.com - Paul Manna, Collision Course: Federal Education Policy Meets State and Local Realities (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2011) You may order a copy of this book here. Reviewed by Kevin R. Kosar This websi...

momsrising.org - By now it should come as no surprise to anyone to hear that American parents are struggling to meet the conflicting demands of their jobs and their families. As the field of work-life research has ...

blogs.edweek.org - One of the states that opted not to apply for the Race to the Top early-learning competition was Louisiana, and that decision has drawn the wrath of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.In a letter to Republica...

signonsandiego.com - SAN PASQUAL VALLEY  Mark Burroughs’ route to his teaching career was an unlikely one.The fifth-grade teacher at San Pasqual Union School in the San Pasqual Valley toiled 10 years on the darkest si...

washingtonpost.com - D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown called this afternoon to say that the bill he is drafting to steer good teachers to struggling schools involves more than possibly waiving annual evaluations. B...

dissenter.firedoglake.com - I’m really excited to announce the Occupy Supply Fund, a new effort at FDL to truly support the thousands of Occupiers protesting economic injustice and inequality across the country. 100% of donat...

missourieducationwatchdog.com - Education is big business, big money. In fact, it is easy to see which business model colleges and universities use when developing their degree programs. I am writing today about colleges in the w...

educationresearchreport.blogspot.com - ΩIn a new paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists David Z. Hambrick of Michigan State University and El...

whitehouse.gov - The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release October 21, 2011 East Room2:09 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT: Welcome, everybody. Please have a seat. It is a great pleasure to be with s...

educationresearchreport.blogspot.com - ΩProComp is an ambitious alternative teacher compensation system developed by Denver Public Schools (DPS) in cooperation with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA). This report summarize...